HealthNotJustHealthCare Blog

Learn about the new capacity-building effort that aims to strengthen existing community groups that are working to improve health in Texas.

EHF’s Shao-Chee Sim and Jennifer Meier examine the disparate impact that COVID-19 had on non-medical factors affecting Black and Hispanic Texans compared to White Texans, confirming findings from a statewide survey of Texans’ views on the pandemic, and call for state leaders to take action to confront structural racial inequities.

EHF’s Texas Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (TACHI) has announced that six local communities from across the state have received funding as part of an $8 million project to go beyond the doctor’s office to improve the health and well-being of Texans.

In the Houston Chronicle, EHF’s Elena Marks writes that whether expanding coverage comes about through Medicaid or a Texas-specific alternative by another name, whether through counties or the ACA marketplace, it’s time to NOW to act.

Read Marks’ letter calling on Texas leaders to include expanded health insurance coverage, enrollment support, prioritized primary care, and a focus on non-medical factors impacting health as part of the state’s application for Medicaid funding.

Several new EHF research reports look at enrollment data for ACA health insurance in Texas, plus see how COVID-19 related discounts could lower premiums for uninsured Texans.

Medicaid waivers and expansion can be complicated and confusing, but here’s a real-life example to help make the differences a little easier to understand.

EHF’s Shao-Chee Sim looks at the Foundation’s polling data over the past three years that includes Texans’ views on Medicaid expansion, Texans’ support for increased state government spending on health care, and Texans’ view on whether state government is doing enough to make sure vulnerable populations are getting the health care they need.

Your comments are needed as the state holds public hearings on Texas Medicaid dollars.

Efforts by Texas clinics to reduce chronic disease like obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure by addressing community conditions outside the doctor’s office could provide a practical model to address social determinants of health affecting Medicaid beneficiaries. That’s according to a new report by the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University examining policies that can spur community health improvement efforts within Medicaid managed care.